FEATURED SHOWSunday, September 15, 7 PMSwordplay, PT Burnem, Blackliq, Killroy G, D R O N E S @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)It’s always nice when a prodigal Richmond musician returns home, and that’s what’ll be happening at Gallery 5 this Sunday as Swordplay hits Richmond once again to celebrate the release of his latest album, Paperwork. The rapper who last made a mark on the Richmond scene with his 2013 LP Tap Water has been living on the West Coast for over four years now, and he returns to Richmond having received a law degree from Berkeley. Not bad, right?

While Paperwork isn’t technically Swordplay’s first release in six years — a reissue of a 2009 CD-R release (remember those?) called Malista came out on cassette (we would have said “remember those?” about cassettes in 2009) earlier this year on MilledPavement Records — it is the first real new material from Swordplay in over half a decade, and shows quite a bit of growth since Tap Water, even as it retains all the qualities that made previous Swordplay albums so great: forthright emotion, complex and irreverent wordplay, acoustic and melodic touches mixing with pounding boom-bap beats to keep you dancing.

It’s always nice to see what’s been up with someone we haven’t been in touch with for a while. On Paperwork, Swordplay makes clear that he’s still doing well. And for his release party at Gallery 5, he’ll be gathering together a whole bunch of old friends to remind us all what we’ve been missing. He’s joined by some frequent collaborators, including the illustrious and always furiously political PT Burnem and the introspective and talented producer Erik Akers, aka D R O N E S. Sets from veteran Richmond emcee Blackliq and recent up-and-comer Killroy G will round out this bill with some serious rhyme fire. Get ready.

This Cage piece is not silent at all, but instead described as a situation in which any number of musicians are gathered together in the same place at the same time and instructed to play whatever they want, without regard to what anyone else is playing, for at least an hour. If you’re imagining a wall of absolute noise chaos, you’re on the right track — but the whole reason Cage came up with the idea was to get people to look beyond the wall of noise and find the interesting juxtapositions that exist within. With members of the Spacebomb house band, No BS! Brass Band, Luray, The Big Payback, Agents Of Good Roots, and many more talented local musicians involved in this particular performance, potential is high for some amazing sounds to come out of it. Listen closely.

Thursday, September 12, 8 PMHand Out, W I S H, Midlife Pilot @ Bandito’s – Free!Going to free shows is never a bad idea — even if you’ve never heard the bands involved. Take this one, for example — before I checked out the event page for this free show at Bandito’s, I had no idea who Hand Out are. Now that I’m familiar with this New Orleans-based melodic punk quartet, I’m giving this show highest marks. Hand Out’s 2018 EP, Blood & Water, was already pretty great, and they took things to an even higher level of excellence on their split EP with Ghostpool, released earlier this year.

Having spent some time with Hand Out’s ringing guitars, excellent vocal harmonies, and driving tempos, I’d say that they’d be worth paying a significant sum to see live. But hey, at Bandito’s this Thursday, you get to see them for free! You’d be a fool to turn that deal down, especially with local shoegazers W I S H and catchy Richmond pop-punkers Midlife Pilot on the bill as well. Plus — like I’m always telling you with Bandito’s shows — you can use the money you would have spent on admission to buy a big delicious plate of nachos. There’s nothing not awesome about that.

Friday, September 13, 7 PMMax Gowan, Coy Pond, BigDumbBaby @ Black Iris – $5-10 suggested donationThe experimental sounds that were a regular occurrence at Black Iris a year or so ago have mostly died away or found other places to land, but this Friday night event shows that this gallery hasn’t entirely turned away from live performance — always a nice thing to learn in a city where finding a place to catch live music can sometimes be a challenge. What’s really nice is the sounds Black Iris is bringing us this Friday, mainly from DC songwriter Max Gowan.

Gowan sometimes performs under the name Max Gowan And The, which should tell you a little bit about how he operates. Bygones, the LP he released earlier this year, is full of quietly beautiful acoustic pop tunes that sound like they were recorded in a very private ad-hoc space (a bedroom, perhaps?), but glow with perfect melodies that shine in the slightly experimental context in which they exist. This sort of music may experience an interesting transition into the live environment; indeed, this may be the sort of show that everyone will get the most out of if everyone is very very quiet. But that doesn’t mean you should skip it — quite the contrary. Gowan has a lot to offer, and the fact that you might have to listen closely only makes the eventual payoff that much more rewarding.

Saturday, September 14, 9 PMGrebes, Nicomo, Moons @ The Dark Room – $5I haven’t heard much about Richmond-based singer-songwriter project Grebes, and apparently I’ve been missing out. A solo creation from Jacob Ungerleider, who previously played in Natalie Prass’s backing band, Grebes is a keyboard-driven powerhouse of quietly soulful indie pop sounds. They demonstrate their facility with that style on debut LP House Creature, which was released earlier this year, and if you dig the idea of The Beatles jamming with Marvin Gaye in the wee small hours of the morning, you’re going to want to dig into this one.

You’re also going to want to come check out New York trio Nicomo, the Nico Osborne-led trio who just released their latest EP, Views, last month. Its six songs showcase Osborne’s songwriting prowess, and the group’s charming folkish sound, which also mixes in unusual instruments and field recordings to add a bit more texture — though who knows how such things will come off in the live environment. Regardless, it should be lovely. Richmond-based opener Moons will add some texture to the evening with some Hendrix-inspired psych-rock jams to get your night started right.

Sunday, September 15, 9 PMSerial Hawk, Druglord, Scaphe @ Wonderland – $10This show is for all you intellectual post-metallers who enjoy slow-motion headbangs but get more stoked when you’re afforded an opportunity for contemplation of sheer riff majesty. Serial Hawk, an epic quartet who mix Isis-style moments of mood with brutal slow-motion pound and outright noise like Windhand jamming with Neurosis, are sure to please your ears when they pound hairline cracks into the Shockoe Bottom sidewalks outside Wonderland this Sunday night.

On tour behind their brand new double LP, Static Apnea, Serial Hawk are bringing an intriguingly complex and less-than-predictable approach to the intersection of two genres — post-metal and doom — which in 2019 can both feel very played out in less capable hands. Serial Hawk will remind you of why you loved all this music in the first place, and they’ll do so while blowing your mind (and your eardrums). They’ll be joined in this by Minnesota ragers Scaphe, who up the tempo and the noise for their complex and scathing two-piece approach. Richmond stoner heroes Druglord will kick the evening off with a set of hazy proto-metal dirges sure to put you in the proper mood for an evening of powerful noise.

Monday, September 16, 9 PMTriptides, Flaural @ Cary Street Cafe – $10 A name like Triptides might lead you to expect some pretty straightforward jam-band action, but this California crew who are pulling into Richmond for the very first time are much more complicated than all that. Rather than dipping into the Deadhead sound that constitutes the usual brew for everyone’s favorite hippie hangout, Cary Street Cafe, this group takes a left turn into technicolor psychedelic pop.

On latest LP Visitors, Triptides bust out a powerful sound that harks back to some of the best acid trips pressed to vinyl over the past half-century — Innerspeaker, Incense & Peppermints, Skylarking, Magical Mystery Tour, and more all shine through the sounds dished out by this excellent group of psychedelic rangers. Denver’s Flaural are also on the bill, and bring a similarly acid-soaked psychedelic pop style into play; though they may be a bit more grounded in melody, their sound constitutes the perfect pairing with Triptides’ glorious musical space travels. Catch both of them this Monday night, and take a trip into the center of your mind.

Tuesday, September 17, 7:30 PMRising Revolution, Finding Verona, Sun Against Artemis, Militia @ The Camel – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)OK, this is going to be a lot of fun — especially since I didn’t think this kind of thing happened anymore. By “this kind of thing,” I mean random shows bringing together a variety of surprisingly young rock bands from the outer edges of the Richmond suburbs — which are very far out indeed in 2019. Rising Revolution headline this show, and this symphonic power metal group have an entire fictional backstory built up around their band which sounds straight out of Blade Runner, or maybe a Coheed And Cambria record.

Rising Revolution are serious about their symphonic chops, leaning into the sort of operatic vocals and baroque guitar leads that make bands like Dragonforce so entertaining. Meanwhile, Flaming Verona, who hail from out Louisa way and are one of two bands on this show whose only internet presence is an Instagram account (#generationz), are going for more of a Killswitch Engage/All That Remains metalcore-with-emphasis-on-metal thing. Sun Against Artemis have a 70s proto-metal thing going on that makes me think of Deep Purple crossed with first-LP Heart, and Militia are clearly going for some 80s thrash sounds. But what really makes all of them interesting is how young and fresh-faced they are — if most of these bands are too young to drive, I wouldn’t be surprised. How wild is that? The kids are still out there doing it. Get down with it.

Elsewhere Around the State:

Saturday, September 14, 7:30 PMThe Appleseed Cast, Muscle Worship, Long Division @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $15 (order tickets HERE)The Appleseed Cast have been one of the longer-lived midwestern emo bands to come out of the late 90s emo scene that also produced bands like Braid, American Football, and The Jazz June. They also have managed to stay relatively consistent across a 20-year history that’s seen them endure quite a few lineup changes. At this point, singer-guitarist Christopher Crisci is the only original member that remains, but as the band has always been fueled by his creative choices, that’s not a bad thing.

This summer saw The Appleseed Cast release their eighth album and first in six years, The Fleeting Light Of Impermanence. And if you loved their atmospheric, progressive take on an emo sound that often strayed well into post-rock territory, it’s sure to make you smile just as much as previous efforts have. Crisci’s vocals retain the power to evoke both vulnerability and extreme beauty, and the soaring guitar melodies and powerful drumming only underscore the fact that The Appleseed Cast are still at the top of their game after two decades. How amazing is that going to be in the live setting? It’s certainly worth quite a bit more than the admission price you’ll pay to find out.

Monday, September 16, 5:30 PMSoulfly, Unearth, Incite, Prison, Arrival Of Autumn @ The NorVA – $21.50 in advance/$25 at the door (order tickets HERE)Back when Max Cavalera left Sepultura at the height of their fame to form Soulfly, it seemed like the legendarily riff-obsessed guitarist may have screwed up. Now, 20 years later, it’s clear that Cavalera’s choice just managed to create two great brutal thrash bands out of what had been only one. Which is a pretty excellent result, if you think about it. On 2018’s Ritual, the 11th Soulfly album, Cavalera and his crew of metal ragers — which currently includes his son Zyon on drums — show that they can still crank out powerful riffs with a strong Brazilian tribal influence and some serious groove power, just as they always have.

Long-running Boston metalcore rippers Unearth are also on this bill, and have quite a strong track record in their own right. Seventh album Extinction(s), released late last year, shows that Unearth have remained consistently talented at both metal shredding and serious mosh brutality. They’re sure to get the pit raging at the NorVA once they hit the stage. In addition to these two legends of metal rage, this bill also features a few talented members of the younger generation, most notably Phoenix metalcore headbangers Incite. Floridian relative newcomers Prison and Canada thrashers Arrival Of Autumn round out a bill full of serious metal. Get ready.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

FEATURED SHOWFriday, May 31, 8 PMNew Lions, Doll Baby, Fat Spirit @ The Camel – $6 in advance/$8 day of show (order tickets HERE)Remember when Trump won and, alongside everyone who fucking hated it, there were a few people babbling about how “at least there’ll be some good angry music again”? Let me just say right now: it wasn’t worth it, especially for all the women, people of color, and LGBTQ people who’ve found themselves in the crosshairs. But if the return of New Lions is any indication, I’ll go ahead and grant it to those people — y’all were right.

New Lions, which is what Clair Morgan and his band are calling themselves now that they’ve accepted their past several years of existence as a full band, are celebrating the release of their latest EP and first new record in three years, End Story, at The Camel Friday night. With a band name drawn from the final Clair Morgan album, New Lions and the Not-Good Night, they’re clearly building on what has come before. But where previous Clair Morgan LPs mixed Clair’s mathy post-hardcore guitar style with melodic indie riffing, End Story finds this band writing in a decidedly more aggressive vein, with political lyrics and a harsher vocal sound that pushes them almost all the way to the border between post-hardcore and outright screamo.

If the Trump era can get an indie band this upset, imagine what it can do to all the marginalized communities the administration is taking aim for (though actually, you don’thave toimagine — it’s reality). At least we’ll have a killer soundtrack for the battle lines. Or for a Friday night at the Camel, trying to forget it all and enjoy a truly positive thing for this city — the return of one of the city’s leading musical lights to full-throated action. Doll Baby and Fat Spirit will open this one up, and you should definitely bring some extra cash to grab yourself a copy of End Story. You’re gonna need this one by your side this summer.

Wednesday, May 29, 8 PMTired All The Time, SameStory @ McCormack’s – $?Tired All The Time have given themselves the perfect name for this era of millennial burnout and rapidly increasing income inequality. If you’re not one of the rare elites driving a $100,000 European sports car to your fantastically outfitted corporate office, you’re part of the vast assemblage of the rest of us, driving a used 10-year-old European sedan for Uber and panicking at the thought of an unexpected car repair. Is it any surprise that so many of us are, yes, Tired All The Time?

This DC band who wryly uses corporate-style text and iconography to send up the aforementioned elites, may not be able to keep you from having to replace your water pump in six months, but they sure can rock away your cares for one night. Tonight at McCormack’s, down in lovely Shockoe Bottom, they’ll bring their keyboard-laced postpunk sounds, displayed adroitly on last year’s Be Well EP, to the upstairs stage. And it won’t be long before you’re moving your feet with a big smile on your face. Don’t worry about tomorrow morning — just this once, you can wait til 9:30 to sign into the app. We promise.

Thursday, May 30, 9 PMBen Katzman’s DeGreaser, Newscaster, The Firnats @ Wonderland – $6Rock n’ roll never goes out of style, and that’s why the arrival of Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser at another Shockoe Bottom mainstay, Wonderland, is a very welcome fact. Katzman has a Florida metal background and it comes through in spades on 2018’s Quarter Life Crisis, a true wailer of an album whose best tracks would have fit right in next to Van Halen and Judas Priest on early 80s hard rock radio.

But hot licks and killer riffs aren’t the only things Katzman’s DeGreaser have to offer the discerning patron of rock power. Their songs are incredibly well-constructed and have a subtle intelligence at work underneath all those Trans Am-rattling anthems. You can really tell when you check out the lyrics to songs like “Too Old For Retail,” “Goodbye Wi-Fi,” and “Cool Points Don’t Pay The Rent” — these guys know the struggle. And they’re coming to town Thursday night so we can all put it aside for just one night, and rock! You know you need it; let your hair down for this one.

Friday, May 31, 8 PMSleepwalkers, Wolcott’s Invisible Hand, Angelica Garcia @ The Broadberry – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)Sleepwalkers have been an active force on the Richmond music scene for years now, but recently, with their debut full-length, Greenwood Shade, five years in the rearview, it has started to feel like they were fading a bit. Thankfully, that has all turned around in the last few months, with the group signing to Spacebomb and preparing to end the five-year drought of new Sleepwalkers tuneage with a new LP, coming later this year.

It’s not out yet, but the group is celebrating this weekend nonetheless. The first single from the new LP, “Fault Is Me,” came out a couple months ago. Now, Spacebomb is releasing a limited-edition cassette containing remixes of the single by noteworthy local producers including DJ Harrison and Giavos, and Friday night’s show at the Broadberry is your first chance to grab it for yourself! It’s also sure to give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with some of the other material Sleepwalkers have in store for their full-length Spacebomb debut later this year. Be there and get in on the ground floor.

Saturday, June 1, 9 PMThe Cryptkeeper Five, The Vansaders, Decide By Friday, Dead Format, American Television @ Mojo’s – $5 suggested donationYou might think this is the band Bobby “Boris” Pickett was singing about back in 1962, but no — that was actually the Crypt-Kicker Five. The Cryptkeeper Five are actually a quartet, and they play rollicking punk n’ roll tunes that are sometimes augmented by a Springsteen-style expanded band, complete with horn section. The stage at Mojo’s can’t accomodate all that, but the original four-piece will rock you all the same this Saturday night.

On their latest LP, The Stronghold — which was released on local powerhouse Say-10 Records, not coincidentally the label putting on this entire show — The Cryptkeeper Five come across like a strange combination of the Smoking Popes, Alkaline Trio, and Titus Andronicus, and if you dig any of that (or, for that matter, the subtle Springsteen mention above), you’re sure to have a blast when they hit the stage. Tourmates the Vansaders are actually from Asbury Park, but their acoustic folk-punk sound is a bit less Boss-ish and more reminiscent of The Waterboys or The Pogues. Both of these bands and some killer local groups as well will be combining powers to make this Saturday night musical extravaganza one to remember. Bring cash for the donation pot, and bring your card to buy a cheesesteak — they’re delicious.

Sunday, June 2, 6 PMMatron, Kristeva, Deer Eats Birds @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!Free shows to end your weekend are always fun, and there are multiple places around town willing to hook us up with such things on a near-weekly basis. It’s just another wonderful thing about living in RVA. Matron are not from RVA — they come to us from New Orleans — but they’re bringing some wonderful sounds to our town that are sure to wrap up your weekend right. Their latest EP, Standing Water, shows off their unusual hybrid between energetic, mathy post-hardcore and synth-driven alt-rock weirdness, and the group is sure to blow us all away with it once they hit the stage.

We’re lucky enough to get some wonderful local sounds on this bill too — in fact, one or more of these local bands may play after Matron (I’d put one before and one after, but I stopped booking shows a while back due to a permanent case of exhaustion so I may not be the one to ask). No matter when these bands perform, we can be sure that the brilliant, epic post-rock of Kristeva and the complex, melodic alt-rock of Deer Eats Birds will add additional spice and flair to our weekend’s all-too-imminent end. And that’s wonderful.

Monday, June 3, 7 PMAmy Klein (Photo by Orlando S. Gondar), Black Plastic, SLOGAME, Strawberry Moon @ The Camel – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)You might know Amy Klein from her days in Titus Andronicus — she played guitar on the band’s early high-water mark, The Monitor — from her politically-informed online writings, or from her 2016 solo debut, Fire. But Klein is taking things to a whole new level with her upcoming sophomore LP, Winter/Time. Not only does the LP’s lead single, “Nothing,” show both a driving punk energy and some serious postpunk/new wave melodic chops, the album as a whole will apparently tackle complicated narratives constructed from an imaginary world that Klein nurtured in her mind as a child, known as a paracosm.

That might sound like pretty insane stuff at first blush, but album-as-high-concept-fantasy-novel is a familiar trope across the history of intelligent, unorthodox rock n’ roll, from Rush’s 2112 to The Who’s legendarily unrealized Lifehouse. With the album on the eve of release, it seems likely that Klein will go the way of the Rush classic rather than the Who’s nervous-breakdown-fueling collapse, and that’s certainly a great thing. If nothing else, it offers us the tantalizing possibility of a whole album full of songs as good as “Nothing” — which will certainly be a lovely treat for us all this summer. Get ready by heading down to the Camel and rocking with Amy Klein this Monday night. It’s a great way to start your week.

Tuesday, June 4, 7 PMJustus Proffit, Camp Howard, Big Baby, Lobby Boy @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)You know, I can’t say I’m familiar with memorably-named LA singer-songwriter Justus Proffit, but he’s apparently somewhat of a prodigy, having played in touring bands since he was 16 or so. Now he’s 25, and if you’re thinking, “Oh, is this kid the next Jay Reatard then?” you’re not entirely on the wrong track. His new album, LA’s Got Me Down, is full of psychedelic garage tunes, doused in noisy guitar distortion that can’t quite hide the brilliant melodies at its heart.

Proffit’s tunes of LA struggle reference drugs, death, and a culture of false allegiances, but they’re kept aloft by his flawless ear for pop melodies. There’s an ever-present psychedelic weirdness as well, just to keep the whole thing glowing with the sunlight of a slightly overexposed photograph. The combination is unique, arresting, and memorable, and if Proffit carries on in this fashion, he’ll be hugely famous before you know it. Get in on this movement before the rest of the world catches on, and spend your Tuesday night at Gallery 5. You won’t regret it.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, May 30, 8 PMPhobia, Diseased Earth, Organ Trail @ The Golden Pony – $12 (order tickets HERE)Legendary California grindcore ragers Phobia have been around for damn near 30 years now, and despite many different trials and tribulations over that time, they continue rolling along at full speed — their forthcoming LP, Generation Coward, is something like their 16th release, and that’s not even counting the million split EPs they’ve done over the years. They’ve still got the fire in their bellies, though, as is clear from the new LP’s advance single, “Internet Tough Guy.” We’ve all known a few of those, am I right?

Anyway, Phobia are coming to Harrisonburg’s Golden Pony tomorrow night, and they’re going to rock the place like crazy. Roaring, growling vocals, grinding thrash guitar riffs, and super-fast blast beats aplenty await the fortunate souls who stumble into the Golden Pony. It’s going to be awesome, especially with regional powerhouses Diseased Earth and Organ Trail (not the computer game you played in middle school — oh my, no) dropping a bomb loaded full of death-metallic grind power on you to kick this night off. Be ready to bang your head, because you’re going to be doing a lot of that.

Saturday, June 1, 8 PMBlue Streak, The Great Noise, Bacchae, W I S H, Wring Out @ West Beach Tavern – $10 (order tickets HERE)Hardcore isn’t just a sound, it’s a culture. Want proof? Check out hardcore bands like Angel Du$t, or Culture Abuse — bands that are both beloved in the scene and bear no resemblance to Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Brains, or any of the other agreed-upon touchstones of the sound. But their members have played hardcore music before, so hardcore kids are willing to check them out. Blue Streak might be another one of those bands; featuring members of Give, Red Death, and — sure enough — Angel Du$t, this group nonetheless brings a sound that comes much closer to indie pop and alternative rock than anything approaching hardcore.

Will the kids love it nonetheless? It’s an open question with this relatively new band, who’ve only released two singles thus far. However, considering the quality of the songs on offer, they certainly should. And those of you who couldn’t care less about hardcore might want to consider doing so as well. Fans of everything from Sloan to Braid to The Breeders are going to hear things they really like in this band’s sound — regardless of cultural affiliation. They’ll be playing with a bunch of other melodic indie, alt-rock, and shoegaze groups as well, so you’re sure to have a full night of joy with fellow DC power-poppers Bacchae, Hampton Roads killers The Great Noise, and even Richmond’s own hazy-guitar maestros, W I S H. What are you waiting for? Get down with it.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

FEATURED SHOWFriday, March 29, 6:30 PMA Tribute To The Brecker Brothers, feat. JC Kuhl & Bob Miller @ Ashland Theatre – $12-25 (order tickets HERE)The Ashland Theatre’s only been doing shows for about a month now, and already they’ve become a venue to watch. No doubt this has something to do with the Broadberry Entertainment Group, whose bookings around the city are consistently some of the most interesting and cool live shows on any given week. And for this show, at least, it also has to do with Richmond’s jazz scene, which is always doing something new and creative in the live performance arena.

This time around, Ashland Theatre and Broadberry Entertainment Group will be presenting an evening in tribute to the Brecker Brothers. Now, that name may not jump right out at you, but I can guarantee you’ve heard their work. The brothers — Randy, who played trumpet, and Michael, who played saxophone — contributed their talents to all sorts of classic 70s albums, from George Clinton to Todd Rundgren to Frank Zappa to Eric Clapton. They also had a duo of their own, which was a primary exponent of that jazz/funk fusion sound that the 70s so generously gave to us, before pushing things farther with their landmark 1978 album, Heavy Metal Be-Bop, on which they ran their horns through guitar amps and distortion effects.

You’ll never see the Brecker Brothers themselves; Michael passed away a decade ago. But this weekend, you can see the next best thing — a full-band tribute to the Brecker Brothers, featuring JC Kuhl (of Agents of Good Roots and local jazz scene fame) playing the role of Michael, while Bob Miller (of Richmond’s salsa legends, Bio Ritmo) in the role of Randy. Backing them up will be a stacked lineup of Virginia talent, including members of Butcher Brown, the Spacebomb house band, and more! Get ready for some skunk funk, because these musicians are going to keep the music going all night at a venue that’s rapidly becoming an essential Central VA spot for live music.

Wednesday, March 27, 8 PMModern Color, No Sun, W I S H, Two Cars @ The Dark Room – $5It’s a shoegaze paradise at The Hof’s Dark Room tonight. The Underexposed series, of which this show is a part, is designed to bring us sounds from bands we might not have heard much about, and while that might lead you to expect Richmond-based bands, tonight the big surprises are going to come from out-of-towners. Modern Color is at the top of the bill; they hail from SoCal and bring us a melodic yet driving take on a loud-guitar alt-rock sound that’s honestly way too clear to be shoegaze — but someone will call them that anyway, so it may as well be me, right?

One thing is for sure where Modern Color is concerned: they use their loud guitars to the fullest, evoking their beachfront hometown environs while still bringing plentiful energy. No Sun, who ironically come from the sunbaked state of Utah, generate the sort of fuzzy clang you’d be more likely to expect from a shoegaze band, and they embrace it fully, calling to mind 90s UK legends like Swervedriver or My Bloody Valentine. Getting this touring duo from a $5 local midweek show is one of the subtle treats this city loves to grace us with. And rest assured, the sets from local openers W I S H and Two Cars will be another. This one is well worth your cash, so pony up and get down to the Hof tonight.

Thursday, March 28, 8 PMShy Low, Standards, Colin Phils, Curtana @ The Camel – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)Math-rock, post-rock, indie — whatever you want to call it, one thing is certain: there’s a lot of this kind of thing happening around Richmond lately. And it’s definitely a good thing, especially since it seems to have resulted in a recent rejuvenation of Shy Low, the long-running four-piece who’ve long evoked Mogwai and Mono with their epic, intense instrumentals. It has still been a few years since their last release, but… perhaps that will change soon? We can hope. In the meantime, there have been several opportunities to see them live lately — this is just the latest.

And as if availing yourself of that opportunity isn’t enough of a reason to hit the Camel this Thursday night, Shy Low will be accompanied on this bill by Standards, an outstanding LA duo who are on tour behind their freshly-released EP, Friends. For fans of instrumental guitar pyrotechnics, this record will be an embarrassment of riches, as Marcos Mena’s fingertap gymnastics impress on a whole other level. You’re sure to find yourself staring at his fretboard at some point during Standards’ set, wondering how the man can possibly do all that with only ten fingers. He does, though, and you’re going to want to see it happen live and in the flesh. Opening sets by the always-reliable Colin Phils and dazzling local prog-rockers Curtana only sweeten the pot.

Friday, March 29, 6 PMHypocrisy, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Aenimus, Seraph, Gutted Christ @ The Canal Club – $20 in advance/$22 day of show (order tickets HERE)Oh wow. The fact that this tour is named after the legendary long-running compilation series, Death… Is Just The Beginning, definitely brings back memories for a true 90s metalhead like me. Nuclear Blast Records have been putting these comps out every few years for three decades now, and headliners Hypocrisy have been around for about as long. This killer Swedish death metal band hasn’t released an album in six years, but between their rock-solid track record and the fact that 2013’s End Of Disclosure was a sure-fire winner from beginning to end, headbangers can certainly take heart — this set is guaranteed to rule.

Even cooler is the fact that Hypocrisy’s co-headlining this tour with another Euro death metal sensation — Fleshgod Apocalypse. These Italians have always had a symphonic edge to their sound, even integrating operatic vocals on occasion for peak melodrama. However, they’ve always known how to keep it heavy and give us the killer riffs in abundance, and even after a significant lineup shakeup a couple years ago, the first single from upcoming fifth album Veleno shows they’ve still got the juice. So head out to the Canal Club this Friday night, and wear your best studded gauntlets, because this one is going to be tough as nails.

Saturday, March 30, 7 PMKings & Queens Of Go-Go Tour, feat. EU, Trouble Funk, Junkyard Band @ The National – $25 in advance/$35 at the door (order tickets HERE)Do you like to get down? Do you like to get funky? Do you like to DROP THE BOMB? If so, you’re in luck, because this Saturday night sees three of the brightest stars of DC’s legendary go-go scene visiting Richmond to tear the roof off the National — and you’re gonna want to be there. Go-go is a highly regional scene centered around Washington, DC — for most of its history, it was only truly popular in the DMV area. However, it had a big moment in the 80s; while go-go has its roots in funk, it’s a particularly rhythmic, percussion-heavy strain, and that appealed strongly to early hip hop fans.

EU (short for Experience Unlimited) had one of the most popular go-go hits ever with “Da Butt,” a sexually charged party-starter from the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s School Daze. It was so popular, I once saw a guy in a Scooby-Doo costume dance to it in a make-your-own-video booth at King’s Dominion (#onlytrue80skidswillunderstand). Meanwhile, Trouble Funk’s 1982 single, “Pump Me Up,” was a huge club hit — especially in DC, where at the height of their fame, they co-headlined shows with hardcore pioneers Minor Threat. Meanwhile, onetime Def Jam recording artists The Junkyard Band can be seen performing their signature song, “Sardines,” in the Run-DMC movie, Tougher Than Leather. And we get all three of these groups on the same stage, for $25? This is the deal of the decade, folks — don’t miss out. And wear your dancing shoes, because your feet will be moving.

Sunday, March 31, 7 PMMilk, Missangelbird, Danet Jackson @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$6 day of show (order tickets HERE)It’s not often that a piece of music manages to take me by surprise, so when it happens, it’s certainly worth noting. Milk’s 2017 LP, Horsetown Threshold, does exactly that, not only over the course of the album but even in a single song. The first track, a beautiful acoustic ballad called “Too High To Drive,” is occasionally interrupted by squalls of distorted heavy noise — but in a manner that is not only intentional but meshes well with the song as a whole. This is what Milk do throughout the album, really; present us with gorgeous melodies that draw from indie-folk sources, then shift into heavy moments that pulverize the listener with some prime Blue Cheer/Crazy Horse riffage.

Seeing this whole thing take place live might be a bit of a mind-bender… but who wouldn’t want that, especially on a Sunday night? Sometimes life has to throw us a few curveballs just to keep us from sleepwalking through it, and it’s much better to have those curveballs come in the form of a truly unpredictable band than in that of a car crash, right? So put down the cellphone and drive carefully to Gallery 5 this Sunday night, where Milk will proceed to blow your mind. Local openers Missangelbird and Danet Jackson will provide you with some sweet melodies of their own to prepare the way for the Boston headliners. Get there.

Monday, April 1, 7 PMDBUK, Norman Westberg, Old Gun Road @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $12 (order tickets HERE)Denver’s DBUK were originally called Denver Broncos UK, a joke that I can appreciate as both a fan of American football and UK indie bands. Apparently the Denver Broncos football team didn’t appreciate it, though, since they’re known only by their initials now. But regardless of the name they’re going by, DBUK is definitely worth going to see. The group arises from a Denver scene known for producing dark, apocalyptic varieties of folk-Americana. DBUK features Slim Cessna’s Auto Club mastermind Slim Cessna, as well as Jay Munly, who has led various solo projects as well as taking part in Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Scott Kelly & the Road Home.

DBUK just released their second album, Songs Nine Through Sixteen, and while it’s got less overt country and Americana influences than previous projects the members have been involved with, it maintains the deep dark mood that has always been the most compelling aspect of that whole Denver scene (which also produced Wovenhand and 16 Horsepower, among others). It’s therefore fitting that they come to Richmond in the company of Norman Westberg, who has played guitar in Swans for nearly 40 years and will be doing a solo set that, if it’s anything like the solo albums he’s released in recent years, should lean heavily on ambience and atmosphere. Local openers Old Gun Road consist of a bunch of hardcore and metal musicians playing the type of country music they loved as kids. Like everything else on this bill, that’s sure to be a treat.

Tuesday, April 2, 7 PMEx Hex, Moaning, Positive No @ Capital Ale House Music Hall– $20 (order tickets HERE)Ex Hex were all the rage a few years back. This tough-rockin’ trio from DC made a whole lot of fans around the country with their 2014 debut album, Rips, and its Shangri-Las-meets-Runaways take on catchy garage punk. However, the group’s been quiet a while, and you couldn’t be blamed for thinking they’d dissolved after one LP, just as singer-guitarist Mary Timony’s previous project, Wild Flag, did.

Fortunately, we learned as 2019 kicked off that this was not the case after all, and Ex Hex came roaring back just last week with the release of its sophomore full-length, It’s Real. They’ve definitely grown as a band, but the elements everyone loved about their first batch of tunes are all intact here, even as they stretch out with some heavier riffs, contrasting those at other points with some introspective moments. The end result is sure to delight all previous Ex Hex fans, and might just make some new ones (assuming everyone doesn’t love this band already). They’re accompanied on their return to Richmond by Los Angeles new-romantics Moaning, as well as perennial Richmond indie-pop faves Positive No. This one is a guaranteed delight.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, March 29, 6 PMJawbreaker, War On Women, Pohgoh @ The NorVA – $37 in advance/$42 at the door (order tickets HERE)All the 90s emo and pop-punk kids are sure to be freaking out over this one. Blake Schwarzenbach has done several memorable bands over the years, including Jets To Brazil and Forgetters, but none have ever captured the hearts of music fans the way his late-80s/early-90s band Jawbreaker did. For many years, even as fans clamored for Schwarzenbach to reunite with his former Jawbreaker bandmates, he swore he’d never do it. But then, in 2017, the band returned to headline Riot Fest and, improbably, kept working together, playing shows around the US and even starting work on their first album in 23 years.

They’re currently in the middle of a run down the East Coast, and this show brings them to Virginia for the first time in over two decades. They’ve even been playing some new-ish tunes (although they are really just unreleased songs from various Schwarzenbach projects over the years), and we can all look forward to the possibility of a new album on the horizon. For now, though, it’ll be enough to bop around the NorVA singing along with classics like “Save Your Generation,” “Boxcar,” “Chesterfield King,” and many more. Plus, opening sets from War On Women and Pohgoh are sure to make an amazing night even more special. Don’t miss this one.

There are a ton of different genres on this bill, from the Southern-tinged rock n’ roll of Bennett Wales & The Relief to the cleancut indie jangle of Richmond’s own Camp Howard, from the electro-pop of Shormey to the heartland rock of Landon Elliott, plus a whole lot more. There are definitely some names that will perk up the ears of Richmond music fans (Kenneka Cook, anyone?), as well as some very interesting sidetrips, including a magic show, a pop-up record shop, and a craft market! Sounds to me like a great way to spend a Saturday night — you know what to do.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

FEATURED SHOWFriday, February 22, 6 PMNew Lions, Large Margin, Basmati, Grandma @ Hardywood – Free!It snowed this morning. It’s supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow. Who knows what the weather will be like this weekend. But while Richmond’s topsy-turvy weather spends the rest of winter (and probably longer than that) pulling itself together, we can at least be assured that, in this town full of outstanding music, it’ll always be pleasant inside.

That will definitely be true at Hardywood this Friday night, when this jam-packed lineup of top-tier local musicians hits the stage. Topping the bill is New Lions, and this sextet is what we get when Clair Morgan stops pussyfooting around about whether or not he’s a solo artist and just forms a band already. Not that that’s any big new thing — New Lions is basically the same ensemble Morgan was leading when he made his last record, 2016’s New Lions And The Not-Good Night (ah, see, you’re starting to get what’s happening here), and the group’s pleasing mix of indie melodies and intense, math-y emo remains intact. Plus, they’re almost done with their new EP, so you’ll probably hear at least a song or two from it aired out live.

Large Margin are the other big story of the night, and while this band may have been ultra low-key with their rollout, one listen to last year’s self-titled full-length was enough to blow your hair back for sure. This quartet of local post-hardcore luminaries is kicking up some serious dust with their Fugazi-inspired take on angry, energetic noise-core, and on a personal note, it’s pure catnip for me — I love it. This show marks the physical release of the aforementioned self-titled full-length, and you’d all be fools not to grab it on cassette while the getting’s good. You’d also be fools not to arrive on time and catch powerful sets from long-running indie-math vets Basmati and the looping pop genius of Grandma. This show doesn’t even cost anything to get in, so you officially have no excuse.

Wednesday, February 20, 7 PMDoc Rotten, Love Roses, The Chuggernauts @ McCormack’s – $7Punk never sleeps, at least not before the sun’s coming up. And punk doesn’t care what day of the week it is, or what sort of job you have to get to at some point tomorrow. Punk thinks you should probably just quit your job. What has it ever done for you? It’s an especially incisive critique when you consider all the great things punk bands like Doc Rotten have given you over the years: snotty singalong choruses, catchy melodic leads, angry yet upbeat riffs you can raise your fist and yell along to.

These are the really important things in life, right? And you might worry about how you’re going to pay rent if you don’t once again forgo sleep and stagger in to work at 8 AM tomorrow regardless of how late you were out tonight. But none of that matters tonight, when Jersey punk crew Doc Rotten will have you singing along with an upraised fist (possibly clutching a beer). Last summer’s Illusion To Choose LP is full of bouncy bass lines, crunchy guitars, and deathless anthems that speak to the struggles we all go through, and when they crank out those tunes in Shockoe Bottom, you’ll be feeling good for sure. Local ragers Love Roses and The Chuggernauts are along to keep you smiling all night. Don’t miss it — no matter what time your alarm is set for.

Thursday, February 21, 10 PMTypesetter, Late Bloomer, Washers @ Bandito’s – Free!The classic midwestern emo sound may have quite a bit of history behind it these days, but it is by no means dead. Two great bands are coming through town this Thursday night to prove it to you, and while both of them are from out of town, they do have Richmond connections in that both of them have released albums on our city’s own 6131 Records. The first is Typesetter, who keep the midwestern tradition alive from their hometown of Chicago. Their latest album, Nothing Blues, finds the group mixing gorgeously wistful vocal harmonies with driving riffage and a solid grasp of the dynamics that make for a perfect full-length listen. Their set at Bandito’s is sure to deliver on the album’s promise.

And then there’s Late Bloomer, who hail from one state south of here and, like Typesetter, released a full-length on 6131 last year. Waiting finds this band rocking a little bit harder than their labelmates, catching a bit of that post-Nirvana 90s alt-rock feel in their net along with a generous helping of pastoral emo resonances. If you dig one of these bands, you’re sure to dig ’em both. Local openers Washers should appeal to you as well. This driving melodic punk band lands somewhere between local luminaries Teen Death and Sports Bar, and considering they share members (and a label) with the latter group, there are a lot of local heads who should already be in their corner. If not, show up at Bandito’s and get familiar already, y’all.

Friday, February 22, 7:30 PMChris Corsano/Bill Nace, Crazy Doberman @ Shockoe Denim – $10Let’s get experimental this Friday night, shall we? This bill of experimental music with equal footing in jazz, punk, and improvisation is the sort of thing we might have expected to show up at Black Iris a year or so ago, but this time it’s happening in a completely random spot — Shockoe Denim, where you’d normally expect to hear nothing stranger than the phrase “selvedge denim.” This Friday night, though, it’s getting downright unusual in the fancy jeans store, as New England noisemakers Chris Corsano and Bill Nace perform a collaborative set.

You may recognize guitarist Bill Nace’s name, at least if you’ve followed what the members of Sonic Youth have been up to since their band dissolved. Nace is part of a duo called Body/Head, in which he collaborates with Kim Gordon. He’s done a ton of other stuff in the experimental music world too, as has Chris Corsano, a drummer of no small repute who has worked with everyone from Jim O’Rourke to Jandek at one time or another. These two have joined together previously under the name Vampire Belt to create glorious volcanoes of wild free-jazz cacophony. How will this performance differ? All we can do is show up and see. One thing’s for sure — it’ll be a wild ride. Especially with Richmond’s own pack of wild improv-experimental noise dogs, Crazy Doberman, opening up. The jeans store just might get a little unruly.

Saturday, February 23, 8 PMBuzzherd, Musket Hawk, MSD, Cruelsifix @ Champion RVA – Free!Local punk luminaries Tired and Pissed Records are bringing another devastating showcase to their hometown, this time over at Champion Brewing’s RVA location. And while those who pay attention to this sort of thing might have come to expect straight-up punk with a bit of a metal edge from the T&P crew, this time around finds them veering into the land of outright metal — which fits the environment, a brewer that those of us who don’t partake in the intoxicating stuff have come to associate with music that induces major headbangs.

This event finds two touring bands from north of our city heading into town; Buzzherd hail from Bethlehem, PA, a rust belt city mostly known for completely overdoing the whole Christmas thing. You can imagine what sort of angst this could induce in young metalheads, and you’ll hear all that angst and more when Buzzherd take the stage and wallop you with their chunky, violent take on metallic hardcore… or hardcore-damaged metal, as the case may be. Baltimore’s Musket Hawk take things in a more low-end direction, as they rumble and grind their way toward the perfect fusion of death metal and punk. Again, perfect music for their rather unstable home environs — and perfect music for you to spend your Saturday night headbanging to. Local powerhouses MSD and Cruelsifix only add to the reasons to wear your denim vest and get crazy at this one.

Sunday, February 24, 9:30 PMDropping Ugly, W I S H, Collider @ Bandito’s – Free!We’re back at Bandito’s for the second time this week, for the fourth free show of the column this week, and if you don’t think this is a great time to be alive regardless of the weather, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe to spend the money you’re saving on a huge plate of nachos at one or both of these Bandito’s shows and find out how great life truly can be. Then, feeling stuffed and happy, you can wander into the music room, check out a few great bands for zero dollars, and have a further realization of how truly #blessed you are.

This show features a performance by Dropping Ugly, which is the sort of band name one might understandably associate with thuggish hardcore stomping. One would therefore be surprised to discover that this Richmond duo is much closer to shoegaze/dreampop-influenced indie sounds, with a strong emphasis on beauty and melody. They’re dropping ugly, all right — there’s nothing not-gorgeous about this group’s sound. Sunday night provides you with the perfect opportunity to discover that, and while you’re at it, to take in the heavier shoegaze-oriented approach of W I S H, who will give you serious gaze-heads flashbacks to the days of the Swirlies and the Lilys. It’s glorious. DC’s Collider round out the evening with some killer sounds that make me want to reference bands no one reading this has ever heard, like Monsterland and Drop Nineteens. That’s an endorsement, in case it’s not clear. Want to know more? Go to this show. Like many of the shows in this week’s column, it’s free — so don’t say I never gave you anything.

Monday, February 25, 10 PMSMUG, THRE3, 7th Grade Girl Fight @ Cary Street Cafe – Free!I’ve recently heard the word “smug” used to describe that wave of annoying, pretentious right-wing YouTube jerks we all hear way too much about these days. It’s fitting; it’s a word that makes you think of a smarmy jerk with a superior smile on his face after having said something he thinks is brilliant and you know is ridiculous. Thankfully, the band SMUG doesn’t seem to consist of guys like that. Instead, they’re a trio hailing from Buffalo, NY (home of the Goo Goo Dolls, who rule. Yeah, I said it) and dishing out some powerful melodic punk on their brand-new album, Gorgeous.

So yeah, it’ll be fun to see these guys rock out at Cary Street Cafe, as long as you don’t think too hard about the meaning of their name. They’ll be joined by a duo of Virginia-based melodic rock bands with numbers in their names. THRE3 is a band who must have been frustrated when they realized that both 3 and Three had been taken. They used that frustration to fuel their creativity, and produced some pretty killer punk-adjacent sounds with strong Ted Leo resonances on their 2018 album, Do Or Die. Meanwhile, 7th Grade Girl Fight bring us some fun indie sounds with obvious debts to the world of power-pop and garage rock. The whole evening’s gonna be pretty swell.

Tuesday, February 26, 9 PMRed Sea, MRC, Shormey, Lobby Boy @ The Camel – $8 (order tickets HERE)Here’s a show brought to you by Underground Orchard, a recent booking and promotion endeavor spinning off from the Citrus City Records empire here in Richmond. And considering how reliable the Citrus City name has become in terms of delivering quality 21st-century indie music, especially with an electro-pop flair, it’s no surprise to find Underground Orchard carrying on that legacy by bringing us a performance from Atlanta’s Red Sea.

If you tuned in to this band three years ago, you surely heard a different sort of sound — one more guitar-based and indie-math driven. These days, though, they’ve moved into the realm of electronic synth-pop, and recent singles are simultaneously reminiscent of Duran Duran, Vampire Weekend, and early-90s techno-house. It’s not easy to pin down, and it’s certainly not predictable, but it’s a whole lot of fun, as you’ll find out when you’re shaking your booty on the dance floor at The Camel Tuesday night. Be sure to check out the Tidewater-based dance entertainments of True Body side project MRC and Citrus City’s own Shormey, as well as similarly-driven Harrisonbury project Lobby Boy. This one will keep your feet moving.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Saturday, February 23, 8 PMSummer Heart, Brothertiger, Karacell @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $10 in advance/$13 day of show (order tickets HERE)There’s a lot of great electronic pop music that comes out of Sweden — and no, I’m not (just) talking about Swedish House Mafia. All sorts of people with strong electro-pop bona fides hail from this Scandinavian country, from Robyn to Avicii to Max Martin. Therefore, can it be any surprise that there’s also a fertile electro-pop underground in the country? It’s that underground that has produced Summer Heart, the solo project of Swedish production genius David Alexander. And it’s Summer Heart who will be bringing the gorgeous sound of sunshine to Norfolk in the wintertime. Bless.

Summer Heart spent 2018 releasing a project called 12 Songs Of Summer, one song at a time. The songs, doled out once a month throughout the past year, are being released as a compilation for this tour, and you’d be wise to pick it up and finally be in a position to let the jams play for a while. They’ll bring a big smile to your face, whether you’re playing them at home or dancing to the tunes in person at Charlie’s American Cafe Saturday night. But to be clear, we definitely recommend the latter course of action. This has been a cold, gross winter, and it’s not over yet. We all need a little bit of summer in our hearts.

Monday, February 25, 8 PM156/Silence (Photo by Ale Gibson-Photography), No Good Deed, Beyond The Grave, Yung Mutt, Lil Broken Heart @ Riffhouse Pub – $5Y’all had to know this moment was coming — the moment in every column where I do my level best to convince every single one of you to get stoked about a metalcore band that’s coming to our area. You made it through the whole column, you thought you might get away without it this time — but it was not to be, as I will now fervently implore you to gas up your auto and head to Norfolk’s RiffHouse Pub this Monday night to see Pittsburgh, PA’s 156/Silence.

If I am to be totally forthright with you in my advocacy, I must admit that I have no idea what their seemingly random name means. However, it matters little; their 2018 LP on Innerstrength Records, Undercover Scumbag, contains all I need to understand about this band — a powerful collection of driving metallic sludge. filled with angst and fury, plus plenty of noisy guitar chaos, thundering drums, and intense throat-shredding screams. This band is sure to delight fans of everything from Sworn In to The Chariot to All Else Failed, and as I am all three of those fans, I am fair and squarely stoked. You will be too if you make it to RiffHouse Monday night; when have I ever steered you wrong?

Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

FEATURED SHOWThursday, January 3, 7 PMHumungus, 3:33, Buzzard Dust, Nuclear Tomb, Et Mors @ Champion RVA – Free!
It’s 2019, and if there’s one thing we can all agree on as local live music fans, it’s that Strange Matter’s departure has definitely hurt us. This week’s show column shows the damage done — fully two days of this week ended up being left out for lack of anything worthwhile to send you to. Hopefully this is a one-time post-holiday-doldrum thing, but even if it’s not, one thing it makes clear is that someone, some venue or other, is going to need to step up and fill the void Strange Matter left, or we’re gonna have quite a bit less rocking out to do.

Champion Brewing did its fair share of free Thursday shows in the past, but in recent months, they’ve largely kept a low profile. The fact that they’re giving us a free show on the first Thursday of the new year is a hopeful sign, though. Let’s hope it keeps coming from these fine purveyors of suds I don’t actually drink. And let’s hope it continues to be as raging as this show is. Humungus is at the top of the bill, and these local headbangers have had some lineup shake-ups since their Warband LP in 2015, but they continue to deal in the sort of wicked metal power that made 80s thrash records so great, complete with a vocalist who hits triumphant high notes like it’s his job (which, to be fair, it is).

This show also brings a duo of touring Baltimore metal bands to us to rock this town and make us scream and shout — or at least bang our heads. Nuclear Tomb just released a brand new EP, Succumbing, and its focus on death-metal brutality and technical complexity makes it an intriguing listen. Live, this band is likely to roll right over you like a metal steamroller, but if you listen close, the riffs will keep you fascinated. Tourmates Et Mors deal out the sort of dragging, sludgy doom that will make you feel like the world is caving in on you. If you weren’t already planning to bring earplugs, this group offers a strong inducement. Local heroes 3:33 and Buzzard Dust round out a bill full of champion metal. Yeah, you see what I did there.

Thursday, January 3, 6:30 PMHaybaby, President Sam, Doll Baby, Two Cars, W I S H @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free! (Donations accepted)
Dogs are cool. Cats are cool. Chances are you agree with at least one of these statements, if not the other. And that is a good reason for you to go to this SPCA benefit at Garden Grove Brewing. Another is that it’s free — but of course, you should still bring some cash, because they’ll be taking donations for the Richmond SPCA, and unless your heart is a cold black rock, you want to make sure that they keep doing all that they do to help out local dogs and/or cats.

But the best reason to go to a show is always and forever the music, and this selection of rad Richmond bands is gonna rock you right! Haybaby have been splitting their time between Brooklyn and Richmond for years now, which might be why it’s been three years since their last EP, but word is they’ll be bringing us another LP full of their power-pop goodness sometime this year — so that’s something to look forward to! President Sam is starting a tour with this show, and this emo-pop/pop-punk band certainly tickles my fancy (y’all know what a sucker I am for this sound), so make sure you catch them. And don’t miss Two Cars either. This emo-shoegaze trio has a brand new EP out, and they’ll be celebrating its release at this show, so chances are they’ll be fired up! All this and Doll Baby too? Plus an opening set from W I S H? This show would be cheap even at ten times the price! (Because ten times free is still free.) Bring donations for the puppies and kittens, and get your year started right!

Friday, January 4, 5 PMSilver Age, Unturned, Thirst For The Sea, Having Keepsake, Apricity @ The Canal Club – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
There was a bit of punctuation mark abuse in that last blurb, so I’m gonna try to keep it chill here, as I write about the first of two 2019 Kickoff shows The Canal Club is throwing this weekend. This one’s the “rock” show, and Saturday brings us a “metal” show. Of the two, I’m most excited about this one. Silver Age are an intriguing band who got a lot of attention in 2017 due to their winning a shot onto the Warped Tour that year. They’re a bunch of teenagers with a heavy sound that splits the difference between more recent emo bands and heavily melodic post-hardcore bands of the 90s (think Hum, or maybe Quicksand). Now that they’re out of high school, these kids should be getting more done in 2019. Get in on the ground floor right here.

Fellow northern-midwesterners Unturned are also on this bill, and these guys have a somewhat similar sound to that of Silver Age, though they’re a bit less heavy and more straight up emo. That’s never a bad thing if you ask me. There are a bunch of VA bands in a similar vein opening up this show and bringing us some more excellent sounds in that vein. Thirst From The Sea live in rural western VA, up near where I went to high school, and have a heavy, driving, and properly emo sound. Meanwhile, RVA’s own Having Keepsake are a bit more post-rock infused, but still angst-ridden, while Mechanicsville newcomers Apricity (apparently it means “the warmth of the sun in winter”) kick things off with some “melodic grunge.” I’m into it. You should be too. Exclamation point.

Saturday, January 5, 8 PMLady Moon & the Eclipse (Photo by Luke Awtry Photography), Kenneka Cook, Calvin Presents, Mekong Xpress & the Get Fresh Horns @ The Camel – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
We’re getting in a funky mood this Saturday night at The Camel. Lady Moon & the Eclipse are headed down from their Brooklyn home to bring us all some thick and heavy grooves. This group’s fat bass sound and nimble synth lines hark back to the 70s in a serious way, resembling some of the lush soul productions that were happening at the same time as disco, but just had so much more depth to them. And of course, Lady Moon’s voice is the focus of it all, singing directly to your soul with soothing messages of love and positivity.

So get ready to groove with the Eclipse, but don’t think that this show is all about the Brooklynites, because we’ve got a passel of homegrown talent waiting for you as well. We talk about Kenneka Cook a lot around here, and for good reason — from her amazing voice to her brilliant and unpredictable compositions, this woman is the first name in 21st century soul here in central VA. Calvin Presents is an up-and-coming talent with a jazz-based approach to R&B balladry that results in music that both resists easy categorization and rewards listeners with musical beauty. And of course, Mekong Xpress are a funk-rock combo that grew out of everyone’s favorite Vietnamese-food destination in RVA to become a groove powerhouse. Get down with all of it this Saturday night, and dance into the new year in proper fashion.

Sunday, January 6, 8 PMHot Pink Satan, Solemn Shapes @ Fallout – $6 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)
They’re getting weird with it over at Fallout this Sunday night, and before you tell me that that’s just a normal night at Shockoe Bottom’s foremost private fetish club, let me provide some details. What you must know is that a band with the memorable name of Hot Pink Satan is performing. This Pittsburgh-based duo is every bit as shocking as their name would lead you to believe.

Singer Clea Cutthroat’s tendency to lose her clothing and end up covered in blood might make you think of Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics, while the pounding, heavy industrial beats and sexual preoccupations of the music are more likely to inspire recollections of Lords Of Acid’s mid-90s heyday. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult fans should probably appreciate what this bizarre group is doing too, and metal fans may get a kick out of knowing that instrument-wielder allinaline was once in Chimaira. So if you like a bit of metal noise and punk confrontation in your sexy industrial dancefloor bangers, this is the perfect group for you. Just don’t stand too close if you don’t want to end up slippery.

Tuesday, January 8, 7 PMMdou Moctar, Night Idea @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Over the last decade or so, the music of the Tuareg people has received quite a bit of recognition outside their native Saharan desert. This nomadic ethnic confederation of livestock ranchers have an interesting place in the culture of the African continent, but what really has caught the world’s ear in recent years is their tradition of psychedelic guitar music. That all started with the legendary band Tinariwen, who mixed traditional Tuareg musics with electric guitars and acid-rock influences.

Mdou Moctar is a similar sort of Tuareg guitarist, one who has put his own personal stamp on the sound of this region, keeping a more traditional approach than some more recent Tuareg combos, while still retaining a speedy, nimble-fingered approach to the fretboard that is sure to please the ears of all you metal-shredding guitar heroes out there. His 2017 album, Sousoume Tamachek, revolves around acoustic instruments and traditional percussion, but Moctar still wails on guitar throughout. He’s sure to do a similar thing from the stage of Gallery 5 — you’ll be able to hear the desert winds blowing through your hair as you listen. Don’t miss this one.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, January 4, 8 PMLake Street Dive, Mikaela Davis @ The NorVA – $25 in advance/$29.50 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Lake Street Dive are an intriguing group. Even wikipedia, which calls them “a multigenre band,” has no idea how to explain their sound. They’ve got an old-school approach to instrumentation that lays the groundwork for everything that comes after. Acoustic stand-up bass, soulful horns, and Rachel Price’s humdinger of a voice, which is mid-range in tone but as deep as the ocean in vibe, are all key elements to understanding what this group is up to. And of course, they’ve grabbed some attention online with covers of immortal classics by artists like Michael Jackson and Hall and Oates.

So at this point, you’re thinking “Postmodern Jukebox,” right? Not so fast. Because Lake Street Dive are skilled songwriters with a deep quiver full of excellent original compositions. Blues, soul, old-school R&B, old-time folk, and rock n’ roll all factor in, always with a strong foundation in live instruments played at the same time in a room. This band is powerful, and they’ll keep you smiling and your feet moving throughout their performance at The NorVA. So hey, whether you’re a curious Hampton Roads resident, a fan who’s bummed they didn’t make it up to Richmond this time around, or just someone who loves great music played well by talented people, this show needs to be on your calendar.

Saturday, January 5, 8 PMThe Candy Snatchers, Big Bobby & The Nightcaps, The Nerve Scheme @ Elevation27 – $10 in advance/$14 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Back in the 90s, if you were a fan of raging, unbridled punk rock from any part of the world, you were looking to Virginia. Why? Because the Candy Snatchers were from here. This legendary punk n’ roll band were up there with the Dwarves, the Supersuckers, and the New Bomb Turks as the best of the wild-ass bands out there. And they had the stage show to prove it, too — they were known to spew blood, spit, and beer all over the place as they dealt out their pedal-to-the-metal brand of manic punk thrills.

All that sadly came to an end with the 2008 passing of the band’s guitarist, Matthew Odietus, who was largely responsible along with vocalist Larry May for the sound that made the Candy Snatchers so unforgettable. However, coinciding with the 2017 release of Moronic Pleasures, a “lost album” recorded in the late 90s, May and longtime drummer Sergio Ponce resurrected the group for some celebratory live dates around the mid-Atlantic area. Since then, they’ve been firing it up and going wild on at least an occasional basis, and this Saturday night provides the latest opportunity to catch the wild fire from this band once again. Chances are shit’s gonna get pretty crazy at this show — if you’re a true-blue fan of rock n’ roll at it’s most out-of-control, you’re not gonna want to miss it. No matter how far you have to drive.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

FEATURED SHOWFriday, November 23, 8 PMThe Big Payback, Weekend Plans @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Hey Richmond, it’s Christmas time! Well, OK, it’s still the day before Thanksgiving as you read this, but we all know what comes the day after Thanksgiving: Black Friday, the longstanding kickoff to the Christmas shopping season. In these days when stores are playing Christmas carols over the muzak the day after Halloween, it might seem like Black Friday actually lands several weeks into the Christmas shopping season, but none of us can deny that the most ridiculous sales (and the biggest customer mobs) all happen when the stores open the day after Thanksgiving. I mean, the evidence is on YouTube to prove it!

That being said, Richmond’s foremost James Brown tribute act, The Big Payback, are giving all of us a reason to leave the house on Black Friday despite all the crazy shopping crowds. Long after that whole pallet of $20 TVs is gone from the Walmart aisle, they’ll be taking the stage at The Camel to chase your Christmas shopping blues away with a set of powerful funk. Frontman Kelli Strawbridge has quite the reputation for talent, energy, and soul due to his many excellent projects around town (KINGS, Mekong Xpress, Mikrowaves, and the list goes on), and seeing The Big Payback makes clear that he was born to invoke the spirit of James Brown live on stage.

The Godfather Of Soul recorded three different Christmas albums over the course of his career, and we can only hope that Strawbridge and his crack ensemble of talented musicians are willing to bust out “Soulful Christmas” or “Go Power At Christmas Time” for this performance. Even if they just stick to the tried-and-true classics, though, you’ll still get a night full of perfectly-played funk grooves it’s impossible to sit still for. So get on the floor, get your groove on, and sweat those turkey pounds away. Start your Christmas season on the good foot.

Wednesday, November 21, 8:30 PMKofi Shepsu Trio @ Vagabond – Free!
It’s the night before Thanksgiving, and the last place you want to be is the party all your old high school friends are throwing down the street from your parents’ house. So hey, why not stay in town for an extra night and come groove on some smooth jazz sounds down at Vagabond? Drummer and bandleader Kofi Shepsu is quite young; he just graduated high school earlier this year. But don’t let his youth fool you — this man definitely knows his way around a kit.

Even with only a brief professional music career behind him, Shepsu has already managed to work with quite a few Richmond jazz heavyweights, including Charles Owens, Andrew Randazzo (of Butcher Brown), and Kevin Eichenberger (of CGI Jesus), among others. This particular session sees him leading a trio featuring the bass talents of veteran RVA jazz musician Michael Hawkins, as well as the piano stylings of Garen Dorsey, who previously played saxophone in the avant-garde jazz-metal project Groam. The results of this collaboration aren’t exactly predictable, but they’re sure to be enjoyable. Certainly more so than hearing about whatever the annoying guy who sat behind you in English class ten years ago has been up to.

Friday, November 23, 6 PMRVA Noise Fest: The Finale, feat. Yohimbe, Dyrt, Fake Object, Xenojothsz, Teenage Cynobyte, Kyle Flanagan, Hunting Dog, Kisner, Melul, Ceremonial Scissors, Broadcastatic, Nu Depth, Coteries, Richmond Avantgarde Improv Collective (photo by Joey Wharton), Thieves Of Shiloh, Internecine, Surfacing, and more? @ Strange Matter – $5
Some of the worst news to reach the ears of the Richmond music scene in quite some time broke last week: Strange Matter, which has indubitably been one of the top venues for live music in Richmond over the past decade, would be closing down before the end of 2018. Since the word got out, a variety of different scenes within the local music community have expressed their sorrow over this awful turn of events by putting together one last hurrah for all the local groups within their particular music world. Friday marks the first of these events to hit the calendar — and certainly not the last.

Richmond has long been a hub for experimental noise production, and annual celebrations like RVA Noise Fest were always a great opportunity for the many creative projects within that scene to grab the attention of the community at large — often with damaged beats, harsh noise, and skronking improvisational wildness. Now they’re all coming together to do it one final time. Over a dozen noise acts, from local stalwarts like Coteries and Fake Object to returning former residents like Nu Depth, will all take the stage and blast the loyal Strange Matter denizens with massive walls of sonic chaos. They’ll your mind clean of all thoughts relating to holiday carols and gift shopping, creating an army of shambling noise zombies ready to take over the world. Or at least, we can hope they will.

Saturday, November 24, 4 PMNerve, Love Roses, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Smoke Signals, Thirst For The Sea, 7th Grade Girl Fight, Satori Daydream, Flood The Asylum @ 3 B’s Bar and Grill – $10 or $7 plus donation
It’s not often that I’d send you 90 minutes to the northwest of the city for a Saturday afternoon show, but these aren’t normal times. It’s a holiday weekend, you’ve got plenty of time on your hands, and this is a sincerely fascinating bill that will offer you a chance to catch up with all the bands you’ve missed from smaller cities and towns around the state (as well as a couple of DC-area projects). Plus, it’s for a good cause — these bands are coming together to feed the hungry and donate toys to underprivileged kids, which is always a good thing to do, right?

So who are the bands you’re going to hear as part of this trip up 64 West? Well, there’s the dark, raging hardcore of Maryland’s Nerve. There’s the driving emotional post-hardcore of Charlottesville’s Smoke Signals. There’s the rockin’ indie-garage of fellow Charlottesvillains 7th Grade Girl Fight. There’s the brutality of Fredericksburg deathcore mosh warriors Flood The Asylum. There’s the goofy, speedy punk of NoVA’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. And there’s more, including RVA faves Love Roses. Plus, it all takes place in a scenic central VA town, inside a bar that clearly used to be a Pizza Hut. How fun is that? Fire up the GPS app on your phone and get there!

Sunday, November 25, 6 PMHand Out, W I S H, Manson Family Values @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
We’re all gonna have to get back to work on Monday, which is never fun after a long weekend, but of course you can soften the blow with some excellent live music. On Sunday evening, Garden Grove will present all comers with a set from Hand Out, a relative newcomer from New Orleans who apparently have some history in that city (members previously played in NOLA bands Modern Language and Variants). Here in RVA, all we have to reckon with is Hand Out’s debut EP, recorded earlier this year before the quartet had filled out its lineup.

Not that you can tell from listening to it — Blood & Water has a full, powerful sound that channels the work of groups like Balance And Composure and You Blew It. If heartfelt, hard-rockin’ emocore is your cup of tea, this band’s gonna make you want to go back for refills. They’re joined on the bill by local newcomers W I S H (they write it with those spaces on purpose), whose recently released two-song EP finds them tapping into the spirit of prime 90s shoegaze from the US. The Swirlies and the Lilys come immediately to mind, not that that’ll mean much to my younger readers. Loud guitars, hazy vocals, and ethereal melodies should appeal to everyone, though. And honestly, if you don’t love the moniker picked by openers Manson Family Values enough to give them a shot based on name alone, I don’t even know what to tell you.

Monday, November 26, 6 PMColin Phils (photo by Mags Design), Castle OG, Model Child, Don Babylon, Moniker, Halfcast @ Strange Matter – $10
These farewell-to-Strange-Matter shows are gonna come hot and heavy over the next few weeks, y’all, but don’t get too jaded to ’em, because in only a few short weeks, the club we’ve loved for a decade now will be gone forever. The best advice I could possibly give you is to treat them like Pokemon and catch ’em all. This one in particular will be rewarding for fans of interestingly complex underground rock sounds; the fact that it’s headlined by the one and only Colin Phils only makes that even more clear. This South Korea-via-Richmond group impressed the hometown crowd with their strong split LP with Houdan The Mystic.

Since then, they’ve plentifully proven their mettle (not metal, though, these guys are more math-rock) in quite a few live performances around town. Give them a chance to prove it to you on Monday night at Strange Matter, and you’re sure to come away impressed. Castle OG (the initials stand for “Of Genre,” and I have still never figured out if this is a high-fantasy reference or what) have been making some waves of their own lately. They’ve got a killer indie-pop sound complete with autotuned vocals and some really catchy synth parts, as showcased on their “No Trick” single from last year. And then of course there are a ton of other great local bands who are somewhere on the rock spectrum, from guitar-slinging faves Don Babylon to the unassuming alt-rock of Moniker. There are at least two more bands on this bill, and word is more will be added, so for only ten bucks, you really can’t go wrong. Drink in that Smatter ambiance while you can.

Tuesday, November 27, 8 PMBlame God (photo by Danny DeRusso Photography), Ancient Torture Techniques, Berkowitz, MSD, Spontaneous Noize Combustion @ McCormack’s – $8
Things may be getting dire where the lower Fan’s music scene is concerned (Flora’s also scheduled for the chopping block), but down on the grimy streets of Shockoe Bottom, the Between 2 Beers crew is still keeping the metal flame burning at McCormack’s. It’s a heartening sign of hope for the future, especially when this particular show is headlined by the excellently named New York group Blame God. Their 2017 EP Strategically Confined is a balls-out slab of hardcore rage and biker-metal power, all rolled up together into five songs of pure hate. These guys are going to blow minds and explode heads when they hit the McCormack’s stage, so come prepared.

And expect the unrelenting onslaught to start the second the first band takes the stage at this show. Hailing from Roanoke, the openers in question are known as Spontaneous Noize Combustion and their flavor of blurry, blown-out D-beat is full of harsh feedback and harsher screams. It only gets more hectic from there: MSD bring the grinding death metal to destroy your eardrums. Berkowitz, a new group formed from the ashes of Throne of Botis and Murder, might not be for sensitive souls, but will definitely satisfy your appetite for brutal death grind madness. And Ancient Torture Techniques, the power-violence trio that once upon a time did a split with long-gone Richmond ragers Street Pizza, appear to be fully back from the dead and ready to rip your face off. Sounds like a great time, huh? After all, a little dismemberment is just what anyone should expect from a top-level metal show.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, November 23, 7 PMThe Last Bison, Abby Huston @ Toast – $18 (order tickets HERE)
In a time when bands taking inspiration from mega-selling “indie” folk groups like The Lumineers and Of Monsters And Men are pretty thick on the ground, it can be tough to find anyone talented messing around with those kinds of sounds. Fortunately, The Last Bison have been around for a while, and built up quite the track record for themselves. No insincere johnny-come-latelies they; new album Suda is their sixth release since 2012, and shows some intriguing growth since 2015’s Dorado. The Last Bison initially structured their sound around instruments like acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin, but on their new album, it appears their “mountain-top chamber music” have evolved into a strange sort of off-kilter synth-pop sound.

And that’s a pretty good thing, on the whole — mainly because this trio is incredibly talented, writing irresistible melodies and catchy choruses that stand alongside the best of them. Granted, tunes like “Gold” — which has an almost Modest Mouse-like bounce — are far from the folky acoustic charm of early hits like “Switzerland,” but you wouldn’t want a band to stagnate, would you? And rest assured, if you loved their melodies before, the new album will by no means run you off. So head to Toast this Friday night, and let The Last Bison show you what they’ve been up to for the last few years. By the end of the night, you’re liable to forget ever having known the Lumineers existed.

Saturday, November 24, 8 PMProcess of Suffocation, Appalling, Voarm, Night Hag @ Riffhouse Pub – $8
Process of Suffocation, Memphis’s mysterious masters of death metal, come to Norfolk this Saturday night, and all of you better get ready to bang your head. This group’s blackened sound lands somewhere between the chaotic rage of early Possessed and the relentless rumble of NYC legends Internal Bleeding. It can be heard in all its fine fury on 2015’s Caos Y Destruccion 666, but the group’s released nothing in the three years since. By now they’re bound to have built up a backlog of new stuff, and anyone heading out to this show can look forward to some fresh cuts from the slaughter.

They can also look forward to a triple thrash threat of VA bands backing them up, including two RVA all-stars. Appalling will thrill the Tidewater area with their talented take on thrash metal, which interjects both significant melodic flavor and a great deal of old-school deathrage. Then there’s the straight-up Scandinavian-style black metal of Voarm, who’ve made quite an impression on the Richmond scene over the past couple of years and are more than prepared to the same to Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach’s own Night Hag, who demonstrated their ability to come up with excellent titles on this year’s Insemination Rites Of The Succubus, split the difference between lumbering death metal and brutal, powerful doom, like some strange Frankenstein’s monster made of parts from Autopsy and Noothgrush. Epic.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers–this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]